Stronger Together chapter 118

Harry's reaction to my new, more refined features was much more  direct than Lily's. "Hell's Bell's kid, what did you do to yourself?" He  looked deeply troubled, and I watched his eyes lose focus before he  cursed and covered them with his arm. "Shit, that's bright. What the  actual fuck Cameron? You better start talking real fast. If I didn't  recognize that creepy ass arm of yours I'd think you were a  shapeshifter." I assumed from his behavior that he'd tried to use his  Wizard's Sight on me, and since unstable godsteel was pretty much  magical plutonium he'd damn near burned his eyes out.

Luckily  he was able to take down his wards blind, proving despite his bluster  he trusted I still had his best interests at heart. I smiled softly at  the faith my teacher had in me and stepped inside, with Yang and Barb  and Raven behind me. Kara and Cinder decided to head home, Cinder  because she was still unsure of where to stand with Harry and needed to  contact River, and Kara because Harry's apartment was really small and  four people was already a crowd here. Barb and Yang helped Harry over to  the couch, he was still clenching his eyes tightly in remembered pain.

Yang  looked worried as she tried to rub his temples. "You're ok boss. Don't  worry, it was just a bit of bright light." Of course it wasn't just a  bright light, but like me Yang didn't have the Sight. It was hard to  imagine the concept of seeing something with your soul that burned  itself into your mind forever. Even with the books describing it I was  sure I had no idea what that was like. She sat next to him, stroking his  hair and telling him it would be ok, and I realized that in some ways  Harry was a lot like her dad had been. He was big and easy going and  goofy and he cared about her and did his best to teach and protect her.

Having  seen Kara latch onto the same things and even seeing Harry treat Barb  and Yang as surrogate daughters it wasn't surprising she would latch on.  I walked over to her and put my left hand on her shoulder giving it a  light squeeze with my non metal limb. She looked up at me, eyes filled  with panic, and I was once again reminded that Yang was hands down the  best of us at playing the cool customer. She was so good at it that even  Raven, who could feel emotions, seemed to sometimes forget how fragile  she was because Yang was so good a liar she even fooled herself.

I  smiled down at her. "He's fine. The Sight makes it impossible to forget  what you've seen, so every time he thinks about it the same think comes  back. His brain is getting hit with that blinding light over and over,  but he'll get used to it. He's gotten used to worse. He just needs a  minute." I pulled her up off the couch and she seemed a bit lost and  confused, her small panic attack clearly having left her disoriented.  Those could be triggered by the smallest things. I made a mental not to  have Raven start up her morning talks with Yang again, she wasn't as  fine as she was trying to make everyone think.

Harry  seemed to sense her distress though because when she brought him a beer  he smiled cheerfully, eyes still closed and chuckled. "The kid is right  firecracker. Just a bit of bright light." I don't know why he called her  that, maybe he just wanted to use a nickname to put her at ease and  that one came to mind. It was certainly fitting. But I think if his eyes  had been open to see her flinch he would have made sure not to use it  again. As it was, he didn't see. Didn't see her lilac eyes fill up with  tears as she put her hand over her mouth. So he kept talking as Barb  stepped up to put an arm around her. "Anyway glad you showed up, once  you explain what the hell that was, I can tell you about my call with  Ebenezar."

I let my eyes linger on Yang a bit longer  before I turned to face him. "I was messing with things I shouldn't and I  got hurt. My arm managed to patch the damage and now there's a thin  weave of godsteel holding my body together. The details are complicated  and barely make sense even to me, there are some perks, some downsides,  and I know not to do it again. I can go into it more later but Raven and  Cinder gave me a once over already and they aren't too worried so it's  not an urgent matter. What is urgent is that we just came from our lunch  with Fix and Lily and things are go with them, now what did Ebenezar  say?"

He chuckled a bit "Right to business then, well  that'll have to do for now I guess. Yeah I got in touch with him. He  reached out to the others but like we suspected they can't get involved  without dragging the whole council into it. Since I'm his apprentice  Ebenezar is technically allowed to jump in without it reflecting on the  entire council. The Black Court are monsters but they respect certain  codes of conduct. Master and apprentice is the kind of bond that means a  lot to things as old as them. He gets in tomorrow. We have any word on  the White's Yet?"

I grinned "Oh  yeah. Lily isn't just bringing her own people, she's calling in some  capital to make sure the lord asshole of the White court shows up too." I  didn't mention planning to kill him, Harry would probably approve but  with his connection to the vampire in question his place could be being  watched. Especially with outsiders involved. "She has a bunch of total  badasses in her crew that should help a ton, with the White's and Kara  and Morgan and Cinder, not to mention us this should be a quick and easy  raid. We hit them hard, hit them fast, and wipe their asses out."

He  grinned, but also looked a bit troubled. I knew what he was thinking.  There were A LOT of vampires down there. I'd given them estimates from  my vision and it was well into the triple digits. He'd never seen Kara  haul ass, but with magic stealth vamps behind the scenes she would need  to be careful. She would wreck them for sure, but she couldn't just blur  off into the midst of them when one of the strong ones could be waiting  invisible for her to show an opening.  He got his anxiety under control  though and managed to blink his eyes open finally. He winced a bit at  seeing me but he kept them open, which I figured was a win.

Yang  has dried her eyes by this point so he didn't see anything but the  smiling faces of his apprentices (and the impassive face of Raven) when  he got them open. That seemed to settle his nerves a bit or at least he  wanted us to be more comfortable so he acted like they were settled. He  flashed us another grin. "How about your contractor? She gonna be able  to help us out?" Harry hadn't known much about kitsune when we spoke,  though I suspected with Bob in his basement that state of affairs had   long been taken care of. Still what he knew about her only really  mattered if we got her on board.

As  responses go, my huge grin wasn't a subtle way of saying yes, but it  was a reassuring one. He let out an exhalation of relief. I was sure he  knew what was what, but just in case I laid out what she'd said. "She  has a mad hate on for Black Court, they apparently killed off a bunch of  kitsune because their foxfire burns illusions and veils away and it  makes them a natural counter to the corpses. She wasn't too keen on the  idea of leaving a nest in her backyard and she says as long as we pay  she's in." I didn't mention how much we would be paying because Harry  would have felt terrible and tried to chip in and he was already broke  as fuck.

Yang  piped up, clearly recovered from her bout of emotion, her old grin  fixed in place "Probably doesn't hurt that she wanted to sink her teeth  into some juicy goth rump steak either. " She noted our surprised faces  "Rae told me about the meeting while you were down for the count after  your human fireworks display. If she was turning up the sexy to get you  off balance she would have aimed it at you. She may have been half  joking but she definitely wants to show down on some devils food cake.  She sounds professional enough that it won't impact her decisions much  but if you let Rae jiggle that booty at her a bit I bet she'll be way  more cooperative."

Raven  didn't seem to mind the idea, but Barb's eyes narrowed when it was  brought up. I wasn't surprised she was a bit protective of our girl  knowing just how submissive the sorceress was. I'd let her call this  one, since I would hardly be objective. She didn't nix the idea though  and I knew she was too practical to dismiss a card in her hand just  because she didn't like it.

I  cleared my throat, hoping to save Harry from his head bursting into  flames since his face was as red as a volcano. "Anyway, Hana is on  board. With Lily's five plus Fix, Ebenezar, River presumably, Harry, you  all, me, Cinder, and Kara, plus Morgan, Sam, and Thomas, that puts us  at an even twenty not counting however many White Court we bring."  Assuming Thomas came with us I was betting Inari wasn't especially with  her dad around.

Harry  whistled "Listed like that it's a hell of a team. You could topple some  countries with a force like that. Even a few hundred vamps should be  doable especially if we get an equal number of white court backup. If  Lord Raith is coming in person I don't see them skimping on the honor  guard, he isn't the type not to show off." Sadly with the guards and his  magic immunity killing him would be tough, but not impossible.

I  doubted his outsider protection stopped heat vision, and it probably  didn't stop aspect propelled godsteel fists either. As soon as no one  was looking I was gonna merc the bastard and make it look like a painful  accident, and if I didn't I was pretty sure Kara would. One way or  another that asshole died in the battle, I wasn't letting him hurt  Inari. I hadn't been around her that long but seeing how happy she made  Kara and seeing that bright happy smile of hers I couldn't imagine  letting him do what he planned on doing.

I  could tell the girls agreed. Yang flashed me a bloodthirsty grin, Raven  nodded, eyes frosty with fury, and babr just looked me steadily in the  eye, not needing a gesture to make it clear that she wanted him dead as  bad as I did. DC was all about not killing people, but even if he hadn't  been a vampire, I don't think anyone could call Lord Raith a person.  Hunting monsters was a grey area everywhere. I clenched my fist feeling  the godsteel flex under my glove as if it was alive and imagined the  feeling of shoving it through Lord Raiths skull.

I  wasn't sure if the gruesome detail was some side effect of my new less  human than before mind, but I doubted it. Even when I was much more  human than I was at the moment I'd wanted to butcher that asshole, now I  would just feel less bad about it. I should probably be worried about  that, but I couldn't bring myself to care. Regardless, with everything  in place we didn't need to wait the full three days. I'd contact  everyone to have them meet tomorrow night, and assuming they could get  their end of things together, we would strike. It was time for war.